The LuLac Edition #4,376, August 12th, 2020

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

Our "Write On Wednesday" logo 

 Here I am at Istsnbul Grille with Andreas Mink. Thank God never mentioned the similarity between Trump's and my affinity for Diet Coke.

This is the photo that appeared on line. Photo by Tobias.

 

This week's article comes from one of the oldest German language newspapers in the world. NZZamSonntag. I was interviewed by Andreas Mink for the second year in a row as a kind of buffer to the right wing element of ingrates and misfits who think they know what is right for America. Take a peek.

TRUMP'S STRONGEST FRONT: FEAR IS RIFE AMONG HIS RURAL SUPPORTERS

SMALL TOWN IN THE EAST

WILKES-BARRE, PENNSYLVANIA

Ed Harry opens the door of his steel-grey Chrysler sedan and pulls out two long boxes from the back seat: "This is an M1 carabiner with a 30-shot magazine from the Korean War era." Ed has served in Vietnam and previously owned a pistol. Now he has bought the military rifle and a terrifying Rossi Circuit Judge shotgun for just under 800 dollars.
Ed cites the advantages: "Light, hardly repulsion, five turret chambers for seven centimeter long Winchester cartridges. You just have to hold the shotgun to the hip and press it down. No one in front of you has a chance." Ed bought the shotgun for his wife. He was lucky. The region's weapons stores are largely sold out.
America in the summer of 2020. For the fifth time, I visit the town of Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania with photographer Tobias Everke. We've known the people here since 2016, when we first came before the presidential election to find out for the "NZZ am Sonntag" why Donald Trump inspires so many white Americans outside the big cities.
What did he do to people like Ed Harry, the retired trade unionist who voted Democrat all his life and then joined Republican Trump four years ago? And what does Ed think now, after nearly four years of Trump, after the racial unrest and the Corona crisis that brought his country to its knees?
His answer is two rifles and a few boxes of ammunition in the back seat of his Chrysler and the promise: "I will re-elect Trump."
Wilkes-Barre exemplifies the triumph of Donald Trump. The District of Lucerne County, which surrounds the city, has always been a Democratic stronghold – until Trump conquered the region. His victory here earned him a slim majority in Pennsylvania, one of the swing states that brought him the presidency.
And the people here aren't thinking about turning their backs on Trump. Of the six voters we have met over the last four years, each and every relative or acquaintance has lost out through Covid-19. But the 160,000 dead Americans do not touch their allegiance. Their joy over the booming economy last year has only given way to a grim "Now even more!"
China is responsible for the virus, they say. Trump is fighting back to the best of his ability. But the media and Democrats see the pandemic as the last chance to rob him of the presidency. The high number of cases is only due to Mr. Trump's efficiency in the tests.
All brainwashing of right-of-right media?
Democrats, Trump supporters say, should also be behind the fact that supermarkets like Walmart are open, but family businesses have had to close because of the emergency measures: "The middle class is the backbone of a free society. Democrats want to destroy family businesses to subject the entire nation to state control," says Lorri Vandermark.
In the evening at the Hotel Holiday Inn above the city, I hear the same arguments again, concentrated and on the right-wing TV channel Fox News. And there he is again, the suspicion that Trump voters are trapped in the much-quoted echo chamber of right-wing media. Together with Trump and the Republicans, they create an alternative reality to reality, in which I, as a journalist, think of myself at home.
But after five visits, I know it's not that simple. The people of Wilkes-Barre are not puppets of Trump or Fox News. They have all suffered setbacks in their lives and have rallied again, with their own strength and will.
Lorri Vandermark hit it particularly hard. When we met in 2016, her husband, a military veteran, had just taken his own life. Lorri had lost her house and had moved back to her father in Nanticoke, a run-down mining village south of Wilkes-Barre.
But she found a new job, helped care for veterans, changed her diet and lost 30 kilos. Then she met David Palovchak, who manages a shopping mall. They bought a house and got married in 2018. Three months later, she was diagnosed with cancer. An operation was initially successful. But then the cancer came back.
Lorri has lost her hair through chemotherapy. When she started therapy, she was terminated, she tells me at the reunion in front of "The Bean", the small café in the city. She was without health insurance. This was always met with new hospital bills. Suddenly Lorri had run out of money. The rescue was a donation initiative by her daughter.
The feeling of betrayal
So my question is: does America not need public health, as Bernie Sanders wants, on the model of Canada or Europe? So that people like them don't fall between chair and bench in their distress? Lorri beckons. Then it would no longer be able to make its own decisions about its care. She doesn't know if she's overcome the cancer. But she has a part-time job in mind and hopes that she will be as happy with David as she should be. Tears are in her eyes.
I am impeached by Lori's courage in life. I am convinced that anyone who has repeatedly rallied himself, is not just rattling up propaganda. But what is it then? What is behind this veneration of Trump, whom the people here praise as a hard-working man who marches forward undeterred in the hail of unfair attacks?
Trump embodies the hopes, but also the fears of these people. Dave Yonki is convinced of this. Yonki is an activist with the Democrats in Wilkes-Barre and works for the municipal health department. Many of the president's supporters grew up in the post-World War II boom period, thanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt's reforms: high taxes, strong unions, but immense government investment in research, education, and housing.
The result was growing prosperity for all. With globalization and the Republicans' fight against state and taxes, this world was broken after 1980. Yonki says: "Trump supporters are materially protected." But their descendants would face uncertain times: "Older democrats feel betrayed by politics and threatened by minorities."
In fact, the proportion of whites in Luzerne County has fallen from 97 percent to 80 percent of the population since the turn of the millennium. "That's why we continue to lose members to the Republicans," Says Yonki. He expects Trump to succeed again in Wilkes-Barre: "We Democrats are mobilizing and have demographic change behind us. Trump will still win Lucerne County again – but with a much smaller lead than in 2016." That will not be enough for victory in Pennsylvania and a second term.
Here's a response from Richard Sorokas to Trump's 2018 tax cuts: Only the rich and corporations would have benefited from that. The former supporter of the Democrats thinks this is natural today: "The greedy necks up there are cashing in. But in the end they create jobs, and so the little man comes to the train."
He and his wife Eileen have a good livelihood as retirees. Younger people and minorities fight for survival every day. But among Trump supporters in Wilkes-Barre, their calls for justice and participation come as a personal threat to "socialism."
Fear of chaos and violence
This addresses the protests against police violence and racism – the second major issue for Trump voters, besides the attacks on their president. His fans here are convinced that the left is behind it. Eileen Sorokas suspects powerful donors such as philanthropist George Soros.
The protests are intended to smash the traditional order and herald the introduction of a leftist dictatorship. That's why Ed Harry says of the campaign: "The alternative, a victory for Democrat Joe Biden, would be a disaster. I don't want to live in a communist country with high taxes and no freedom."
Richard and Eileen also see Biden as a senile puppet of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and young party leftists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Under Biden, America would plunge into an abyss of socialism, chaos, and violence. The protests are just the beginning of it.
It is true that the images of the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis at the end of May also stirred up the people of Wilkes-Barre. For Lynette Villano, the video showing Floyd's slow death is "absolutely horrible and unsustainable." Nevertheless, a single attack should not be a cause of violence, looting and arson throughout the country.
The Black Lives Matter demos in Wilkes-Barre were peaceful. But a statue of Christopher Columbus was smeared with paint. So the chaos from the metropolises could easily burn up to here. In any case, the threat seems so direct that Ed Harry bought two rifles. Joe Novackowski also always carries a pistol on his belt.
Four years ago, people here voted for Trump because he was an outsider, not a corrupt politician. Because he promised to drain the swamp of lobbyists and arrogant insiders in Washington, boost the economy, and protect America from China, Latino migrants, and Muslims.
All six we've met over the years believe that racial tensions have exploded under Obama. And the strong pre-Covid-19 economy is proof enough to prove that Trump has fulfilled his campaign promises. They now see their President above all as the last bulwark against the demise of their world and their hopes. They believe in a second term, despite weak poll ratings.
However, Lynette Villano's nerves lie bare. When I stubbornly question her arguments for Trump, she says, disappointedly, "You're following the left-wing Trump haters and the media." We continue our conversation by e-mail. Finally, she sums up what moves her: "I care about respect: I'm tired of being called a racist because I support Trump." This is something you do all the time on social media and in your personal environment.
Respect and material security: In fact, the Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump voters in Wilkes-Barre have the same dream in the end. Lynette even spoke to Trump personally about it.
I discover this at the end of the research on the Internet. The president arrived at a Fox News"s "citizens' meeting" in early March in the region, which is so important to him. And Lynette was in the audience, stood up and said, "Friends and relatives have broken with me." Then she asked, "How do you bring us back together as a nation?"
Trump has met Lynette several times since 2016. But he did not say a word about their concerns: the "radical left" hated him so abysmally that reconciliation was impossible. But after his victory in November, Democrats would have no choice but to capitulate to him.

What the fringe thinks:

Ed Harry, 73, former Democrat" Trump is not perfect. His egomania is annoying. But he is surrounded by enemies. The government epidemiologist Anthony Fauci is also working against him. I'm informing myself on the QAnon network (a movement of conspiracy theorists– ed.): Behind the machinations against Trump are paedophiles and establishment figures in Washington. A key figure is Hillary Clinton. She is a paedophile and a whore. Joe Biden is just one Joe Biden is just one tool of this conspiracy."
Lynette Villano, 74, a county clerk and Republican
"The media is hypocritical of the racial riots, especially the New York Times. Ancestors of the owners in the southern states were slaveholders (this could be true of one of the ancestors of the Sulzberger family, to which the newspaper belongs – ed.). Another scandal is the unemployment benefit of 600 dollars a week. People prefer to stay at home rather than work. My son Ronnie is unsuccessfully looking for helpers for the garden restaurant where he runs the kitchen."
Eileen and Richard Sorokas, Democrats, Trump voters
"As far as competent management is concerned, Trump is flawed. He sets the wrong priorities and jumps from topic to topic. He should focus on the virus and wear a mask. But he has brought back industrial jobs. Joe Biden would be a disaster as president. Behind the protests and looting is left-wing billionaire George Soros. In 2018, he also financed the caravans of illegal migrants from Mexico that President Trump is protecting us from."
Lorri Vandermark, 55, currently unemployed
"The left wants to bring us under state control and raise taxes. Anyone who succeeds should be punished for this and hand over their money to the state for redistribution. And because I'm a Republican, the left thinks I'm rich, too. Our president has other priorities: Donald Trump has strengthened the military, he is helping veterans, and he is showing his leadership in the Corona crisis as well. Now he brings law and order back to our cities."
Joe Novackowski, 58, military veteran, nonpartisan
"I am upset by the protests. They have only one message: we are shit on your land and we are doing everything we can to drive you mad. Corona is already a danger. But the day after the election, the pandemic will suddenly disappear. I don't trust vaccines. Behind this is the greed of Bill Gates. And aborted foetuses serve as raw material. I was vaccinated several times for my assignments in the First Gulf War. Since then, I have been in poor health."